# Dexterous Developer
 
An experimental hot reload system for the bevy game engine. Inspired by [DGriffin91's Ridiculous bevy hot reloading](https://github.com/DGriffin91/ridiculous_bevy_hot_reloading) - adding the ability to re-load arbitrary systems, and the ability to transform resource/component structures over time.
Fuller documentation is available at:
## Features
- Define the reloadable areas of your game explicitly - which can include systems, components, states, events and resources (w/ some limitations)
- Reset resources to a default or pre-determined value upon reload
- Serialize/deserialize your reloadable resources & components, allowing you to evolve their schemas so long as they are compatible with the de-serializer (using rmp_serde)
- Mark entities to get removed on hot reload
- Run systems after hot-reload
- Create functions to set up & tear down upon either entering/exiting a state or on hot reload
- Only includes any hot reload capacity in your build when you explicitly enable it - such as by using the CLI launcher
- ~~Cross-platform/cross-device hot reload - run a "hot reload server" on a development environment, and execute the application elsewhere. For best results, the dev environment should be a linux device or a Linux-based development container, but it can be configured to work directly on windows or mac as well - albeit less reliably. Support for cross-compilation directly on windows/mac is not a priority, since those can always be set up to host a docker-in-docker environment with linux, which is confirmed to work.~~ **This feature does not work in the current version, but will be re-implemented in the future**
## Known issues
- Won't work on mobile or WASM
## Installation
Grab the CLI by running: ```cargo install dexterous_developer_cli```.
You'll be able to run the dexterous version of your code by running `dexterous_developer_cli run` in your terminal.
In your `Cargo.toml` add the following:
```toml
[lib]
name = "lib_THE_NAME_OF_YOUR_GAME"
path = "src/lib.rs"
crate-type = ["rlib"]
[dependencies]
bevy = "0.13"
dexterous_developer = "0.1.1"
serde = "1" # If you want the serialization capacities
[package.metadata]
hot_reload_features = ["bevy/dynamic_linking", "bevy/embedded_watcher"] # this injects these features into the build, enabling the use of bevy's dynamic linking and asset hot reload capacity.
```
If your game is not a library yet, move all your main logic to `lib.rs` rather than `main.rs`. Then, in your `main.rs` - call the bevy_main function:
```rust
fn main() {
lib_NAME_OF_YOUR_GAME::bevy_main();
}
```
and in your `lib.rs`, your main function should become:
```rust
#[hot_bevy_main]
pub fn bevy_main(initial_plugins: impl InitialPlugins) {
App::new()
.add_plugins(initial_plugins.initialize::()) // You can use either DefaultPlugins or MinimnalPlugins here, and use "set" on this as you would with them
// Here you can do what you'd normally do with app
// ... and so on
}
```
If you have a plugin where you want to add reloadable elements, add the following in the file defining the plugin:
```rust
impl Plugin for MyPlugin {
fn build(&self, app: &mut App) {
app
.setup_reloadable_elements::();
}
}
#[dexterous_developer_setup]
fn reloadable(app: &mut ReloadableAppContents) {
app
.add_systems(Update, this_system_will_reload);
}
```
## Bevy Version Support
| Bevy | Dexterous Developer |
| --- |--------------------|
| 0.13 | >= 0.2 |
| 0.12 | 0.0.12, 0.1 |
| 0.11 | <= 0.0.11 |